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Tag Archives: national interest

A pure bomber command is likely to be established for the first time in US military history after the Air Force made the announcement last week to reassign all its heavy bombers to the Global Strike Command last week, James Hasik, a senior researcher from the Washington-based Atlantic Council wrote in a piece for National Interest magazine. Continue reading →

The Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA stealth fighter could prove to be a formidable competitor to American fifth-generation combat aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Indeed, in some measures, the new Russian warplane will exceed both U.S.-built jets, but the PAK-FA is not without its flaws.

“The analysis that I have seen on the PAK-FA indicates a pretty sophisticated design that is at least equal to, and some have said even superior to U.S. fifth-generation aircraft,” former U.S. Air Force intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula told the National Interest. “It certainly has greater agility with its combination of thrust vectoring, all moving tail surfaces, and excellent aerodynamic design, than does the F-35.”

Indeed, the PAK-FA appears to be optimized for the air-superiority role like the F-22 more so than the multirole, strike-optimized F-35. Like the Raptor, the PAK-FA is being designed to fly high and fast to impart the maximum amount of launch energy to its arsenal of long-range air-to-air missiles—which would greatly increase the range of those missiles. Continue reading →

China recently demonstrated its second fifth-generation stealth fighter, the J-31, for the 10th Zhuhai Airshow held in Guangdong from Nov. 11-16. Dave Majumdar, an American defense expert, thus suggests in Washington’s National Interest that the US must put the F-35 into service or develop new fighters to face this challenge. Continue reading →

In an article for the Washington-based National Interest magazine on June 21, US defense expert Harry Kazianis laid out a possible a scenario involving Japan and China clashing over the airspace of the disputed Diaoyutai islands (Senkaku to Japan, Diaoyu to China) in the East China Sea to analyze whether the United States would be ready for such a conflict.

The scenario takes place on Mar. 1, 2015, Kazianis wrote, noting that China has already instituted daily non-naval maritime patrols around the disputed islands while its aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and other warships have conducted exercises only 50 miles away from the islands since February. Continue reading →

With or without consent of the governed and without study of the ramifications such as further dual use technology theft. As mentioned in a previous post, the US Department of Commerce is where China acquired 600 supercomputers from through the Clinton administration giving it the “great technology leap forward”.

Approval of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with Russia is the U.S. Chamber’s top trade priority before the Congress this year. The Chamber is working as part of the Coalition for U.S.-Russia Trade to reach this objective.

On December 16, 2011, trade ministers at the 8th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) celebrated the conclusion of 18 years of negotiations for Russia to accede to the WTO and invited Russia to become the organization’s 154th member. In those negotiations, which took place under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Russia committed to enact a host of reforms, and Moscow is expected to complete this work and formally join the WTO in July 2012.

That Russia will join the WTO is no longer in doubt. In fact, at this juncture, the United States can neither help nor hinder Russia in doing so. However, Congress must act to ensure that the United States benefits from the reforms Russia is undertaking as it joins the WTO. Specifically, Congress must pass a short and simple bill that grants Russia PNTR status and repeals the Jackson-Vanik amendment with respect to Russia. Failure to do so will put U.S. workers, farmers, and businesses at a unique disadvantage in the growing Russian marketplace and drive new sales, exports, and job-creation opportunities to our European and Asian competitors.